A NaNoWriMo Message from the Queen Bee

Huntington W. Sharp — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:01:58 -0800

BEST LUCK AND CREATIVITY TO ALL RED ROOMERS PARTICIPATING IN THIS YEAR'S NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH!!

Tagging Dropdowns Reveal Red Room Secret Identities

Huntington W. Sharp — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:48:27 -0700

I was uploading some content elsewhere on Red Room just now, and wanted to add a tag. You've probably noticed that when you tag, a dropdown menu appears that suggests terms others have used that contain that word. Well, here's what dropped down when I typed woman:

A New Woman Returns
a younger woman
Anglo-Saxon noblewoman
armless woman
Batwoman
being a Japanese or Asian woman ...

A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich

Huntington W. Sharp — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:36:24 -0700

I'm joining the entire Red Room community in writing a short blog post on this week's topic: "Heroes." The form and the content of the blog entry are open to personal interpretation; whether this topic calls to mind a real-life hero, a fictional character, or something else altogether, we want to read your entry. We'll choose at least one of these blogs to be featured on Red Room's ...

Making it Look Right

Huntington W. Sharp — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:25:35 -0700

I'm joining all of the Red Room community in writing a short blog post on this week's topic: "What are your obsessions? Your passions? Your fixations?" This topic comes to us from Red Room Author Joyce Maynard; it's an exercise she does before writing a new book, in order to see what it's really about.

I've had a hard time with figuring out how to express my obsessions. I have lots of ...

Danger All Around

Huntington W. Sharp — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:23:00 -0700

I was fascinated by Amy Stewart's new book, Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities, which the Red Room staff picked as its first book club read. It's an entertaining compendium of plants that range from mildly irritating to individual people to truly awful that decimate whole societies. The etchings by Briony Morrow-Cribbs and the illustrations by ...

Still Waiting

Huntington W. Sharp — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:44:03 -0700

Today's featured articleon Wikipediais about this treatise, published in three parts in 1794, 1795, and 1806. This is the title page, and it is wonderful to me for so many reasons. I'll just say here that I love the idea of a theology that is reasonable, fabulous, and true. I'm still waiting for that kind of enlightenment, and sometimes I'm envious of people I know who have found it. The world in ...

Would Smell As Sweet

Huntington W. Sharp — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:10:12 -0700

From Dictionary.com, based on the definition from the Random House Dictionary: nick⋅name/ˈnɪkˌneɪm/[nik-neym] noun, verb, -named, -nam⋅ing. 1. a name added to or substituted for the proper name of a person, place, etc., as in affection, ridicule, or familiarity: He has always loathed his nickname of "Whizzer." 2. a familiar form of a proper name, as Jim for James and Peg ...

Meow Woof Purrr Grrr!

Huntington W. Sharp — Sun, 10 May 2009 16:01:02 -0700

One of the unexpected pleasures of being an editor at Red Room has been enjoying the sweet profile photos some authors and members put up of themselves posed with a special animal. Whether it’s a beloved companion or a brief acquaintance, this a community that loves its furred, feathered, or scaled friends, and loves writing about them. (Note: This page will remain featured on Red Room’s ...

AmazonFail? We May Never Know

Huntington W. Sharp — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:12:26 -0700

From USA Today: "NEW YORK (AP) — Two days after Amazon said a "glitch" had caused the sales rank to be dropped from thousands of books, the numbers returned Tuesday for Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain, James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room and other notable titles."The online retailer issued a promise on Sunday that the numbers would be restored. But it was Tuesday morning ...

Congratulations to Red Room's Northern California Book Awards Nominees!

Huntington W. Sharp — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:13:29 -0700

Red Room is a community that already spans the globe, and one day we'll have members from every country sharing wonderful content in every language. Of course, we got our start in San Francisco, so it will surprise no one that we have a special place in our hearts for the magnificent literary community that makes the Bay Area and Northern California such a great place to be a reader, a writer, ...

Now IS A Time of Riches

Huntington W. Sharp — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:42:42 -0700

A couple of days ago, as I was quietly working away to make this the best online community in creation, my phone beeped. Text message! While I try to keep texting to a minimum while working away to make this the best online community in creation, I decided to take a look.It was The Housemate. He's generally fairly laconic with the texts, unlike me. I like to get the most out of my 160-character ...

Summoned

Huntington W. Sharp — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:53:53 -0800

(From Ivory, who wrote, "...you certainly have an interesting life.") Trevor Summons does the Huntington"I have visited The Huntington on a few occasions and roamed around most of the place—it truly is one of the jewels of the Southland—so I have seen the art and many of the other delights. This trip, however, I spent some time in the library having initially survived Mrs. ...

100 Things

Huntington W. Sharp — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:12:28 -0800

Ericka Lutz has thrown down the gauntlet. Things I've done are bolded. What have you done?1. Started your own blog2. Slept under the stars3. Played in a band4. Visited Hawaii5. Watched a meteor shower6. Given more than you can afford to charity7. Been to Disneyland8. Climbed a mountain9. Held a praying mantis10. Sang a solo11. Bungee jumped12. Visited Paris13. Watched a lightning storm at sea14. ...

You Have Got To

Huntington W. Sharp — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:41:09 -0800

"Somewhere in Des Moines or San Antonio there is a young gay person who all the sudden realizes that he or she is gay; knows that if their parents find out they will be tossed out of the house, their classmates will taunt the child, and the Anita Bryants and John Briggses are doing their part on TV."And that child has several options: staying in the closet, and suicide. And then one day that ...

Still Time to Share Best Hispanic Lit Reading Experience

Huntington W. Sharp — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:32:39 -0700

(The Hispanic Heritage Month Contest ended October 15th. You can see the winners here.) Allende. Candelaria.Garcia Marquez.Cisneros.Neruda.Salazar.Borges. The list of authors from Latin America and from the U.S. of Hispanic/Latino descent is long, rich, and forms one of the most important threads of world literature. Red Room's been proud to help celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by putting on ...